Cisco learning service. New approach. Snowball system.

Short description

We think that modern technologies have reached a certain logical limit in terms of opportunities of learning process. We have actually everything for the effective learning: visualization, interactivity, animation, etc.

We think that there is a progress potential regarding the organization of the training process, rather the invention of further technological gadgets.

Here is my idea:

We all know the fraudulent scheme of the finance pyramid (also called "snowball system") organized by Madoff. We suggest using the same principle of organization (a pyramid principle), but turning the cheating element into the benefit for everyone.

Here is an example:

The learning course is divided into levels. To finish the course you should pass all levels from the first to the last. There is a fee charged for the first level, after passing the tests, students move to the Level 2. But in order to study further, students become teachers for some time to the students of the first course. And so on.

Knowing that you will become a teacher and you will have to pass your knowledge to the beginners the students will be motivated to perceive knowledge with a zeal. In the process of teaching the previously obtained material will be even consolidated. The quality of education rises significantly.

It's like a joke: "I explained him 10 times, at the 10th time even I got it, but he didn't!"

This organizational form of learning has the following advantages:

Learning is carried out individually or in small groups.

There is always a teacher who can answer any questions in a live discussion.

Changing roles student-teacher-student leads to high quality learning, understanding and memorizing of material.

This type of education can be either completely free or have minimal cost of entrance ticket. This will open education possibilities to people of different wealth level.

Low cost of education will cover more students, rather than using traditional technologies.

The only drawback is that compared with traditional learning methods the overall time of the course accomplishment is longer. But we think that this small negative point is compensated by the number of the positive ones.

The suggestion is to create a service "Cisco Learning service" which would support educational courses based on the principle described above, offering WebEx and possibly Telepresence for user communication.

11 Comments

FEB

2010

10

With the school class sizes getting larger, this might be a viable learning/educational model for school districts.

Where students that pass a certain level, they will inturn move to the next level, but they are also teaching the lower level students.

Dave C

FEB

2010

11

Similair idea with my, And i think about it, but not all of student can be a teacher. Teacher - is individual quality of some person, and some people can't teach other people

I believe in the power of science

Justo

FEB

2010

12

That's true, not everybody can become a good teacher. An option in this case: if you can't teach the lower level students (or you don't want to), you will have to pay for the next level course. If you can't pay, you will have to become a teacher .

"Mentoring", or cooperative learning in this type of arrangement can be a very effective learning process for both parties. It seems like it would be hard for overseeing bodys to regulate the information passed to students. How would you go about making sure the Student/Teacher is teaching good information?

JohnBoyRox

FEB

2010

19

There can be a number of methods monitoring the quality of teaching:

Everybody has access digital, printed, video or audio reference material, which also cover the requirements. Students and colleagues can follow the teacher and compare the content.

The students who know they will have to be teachers next term won't be satisfied with bad teaching. A special system of reporting in critical cases to a coordinator of the process can be introduced.

Mutual evaluation mechanism between teaching colleagues or even by students can be applied to avoid low quality teaching.

Good point. Never underestimate the power of people's opinion of themselves. When a person is a student, they will constantly be comparing themselves to the teacher thinking, "I could do it better". In this way, maybe the material continually has the opportunity to get better.

JohnBoyRox

MAR

2010

04

Hi Anna,

I think it is a very inventive idea and I invest readily in it! It could be very easily deployed and is an excellent solution both for the developed and the developing countries!

ddmitov

MAR

2010

05

What is the market size for this idea?

Dave C

MAR

2010

24

Anna, I think it is a great idea, because as a teacher you always know the subject better than as a student. So when you pass level 1 and start teaching level 1 stuff, you usually notice that you still don't know all the perspectives and details of level 1 stuff and you intuitively start studying further.

What I find even better is that you begin learning level 1 stuff with a vision in mind how to convey it further. Such kind of learning is more effective.

How should be the tools designed by your opinion to support such learning experience?

selas

APR

2010

27

Hi Anna,

This is a good idea. It can be very useful in imparting basic knowledge especially in places where there is a dearth of teachers (small villages etc.)

A concern: the knowledge imparted at the top will get diluted with successive levels. As an analogy consider the game where a certain number of people stand in a line and the first person mentions a certain phrase to the second one, the second one has to convey the same phrase to the third and so on and on. It is observed that after a few levels the phrase completely changes from the original one. Hence, there will have to be adequate supervision of what the students at each level are learning; whether they are learning the right stuff or not .

Regards,

Sagar

Sagar

APR

2010

30

Hi,

I wish you all the best with this idea. It was really inspiring to read about this.

Good luck,

noemat

noemat

These are just ideas with no claim to be real inventions or to be radically new. But who knows, may be some of them will write the future. They are open for discussion. You can view and comment on the ideas in these categories. If you'd like to suggest a new category or post your own idea, please don't hesitate to contact us.